M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster (Monty Chandler)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Auriga (Aur) · Contains: HD247934 · HD247957 · HD247983 · HD248006 · HD248047 · HD248048 · HD248049 · HD248086 · HD248104 · HD248105 · HD248129 · HD248131 · HD248170 · HD248171 · HD248172 · HD248205 · HD248206 · HD248207 · HD248226 · HD248227 · HD248246 · HD248247 · HD248265 · HD248286 · HD248287 · HD248353 · HD248427 · HD248447 · HD248448 · HD248470 · And 28 more.

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M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster

Link: https://montychandler.smugmug.com/Astrophotography/The-Heavans/i-TjJGKJt/A

Powered byPixInsight

M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster

Link: https://montychandler.smugmug.com/Astrophotography/The-Heavans/i-TjJGKJt/A

Messier 37, called the January Salt & Pepper Cluster, is an open star cluster currently found in the constellation Auriga. It's about 4,500 light-years from earth and is estimated to be 350-550 million years old. The cluster contains more than 500 stars and has a radius of 20-25 light-years.

The tidal radius of M37, the area within which member stars are gravitationally bound to the cluster, is more than twice that value at 46 to 59 light years. M37 lies in the direction opposite to the galactic centre when seen from Earth. It contains at least 12 evolved red giant stars. Red Giants are those stars which have exhausted the supply of hydrogen in its core and has begun thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core in this late phase of stellar evolution.

So basically this tells us that the cluster of stars (500+) are gravitationally bound to each other and orbit the galactic center of our Milky Way. The orbital period is 219.3 million years, coming within 19,600 light years of the galactic centre at its nearest approach and moving to a distance of 30,700 light years at the farthest point in its orbit.

The fact that 500+ stars roam around our galaxy as a group simply blows my mind. The fact that we can photograph them, well....

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
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Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
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Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
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Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
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Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	6763407
PixInsight job	Y074BSSYH3BVWPNOZ1P6XXQGQD5N6RP0
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	05h52m18s.723
RA (top/left)	05h54m26s.730
RA (top/right)	05h55m03s.317
RA (bottom/right)	05h50m09s.295
RA (bottom/left)	05h49m37s.191

Dec (center)	+32°33′05″.39
Dec (top/left)	+31°44′07″.58
Dec (top/right)	+33°17′00″.67
Dec (bottom/right)	+33°21′57″.54
Dec (bottom/left)	+31°48′55″.49

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M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster

M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster

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M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster

M 37 - January Salt & Pepper Cluster

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